Beware of the Dog: Cave Canem ! and "Le Renard"

When I first heard this band I was looking for world music with a theme - specifically, Megan wanted to do a global show with a theme of tricksters. Tricksters are common in many mythologies, and are often gods who have a wealth of knowledge and who use it to play tricks, wreak havoc and upset the normal balance of things. Examples of tricksters are legion, including coyote and raven in Native American mythologies, Eshu and Anansi in African mythologies, Saci in Brazil, Papa Legba in Haiti, Koshares among the Pueblo peoples, Loki among the Norse mythologies, and a myriad of others. Most of us of a certain age in the United States know of the African American stories of Br'er Rabbit, or his cousin Bugs Bunny, literary and popular culture tricksters.

In French folklore (and Dutch), the trickster figure Le Reynard is a popular figure - a peasant-hero archetype that continually butts heads and gets the better of the more noble animals such as the lion and the bear. In most cultures, we tend to admire the trickster who pulls down the pants of the high and mighty and gets away with it. We identify with these characters just as we can identify with a real-life character such as Banksy, who defy authority for years and never seem to get caught.

Today's song is about that sly fox. Le Renard is performed by Cave Canem !, a group from Brussels, Belgium that plays traditional folk with jazz and rock mixed in, with a hint of Swedish and mazourka and a bit of improvisation. I couldn't find a lot more about them. The name means "Beware of the Dog" but is also, according to the Urban Dictionary, a set of five or so sexual positions performed in order. (I bet that has spiced up your evening and sent you running to find out more!) Cave Canem !'s first album, Cave Canem !, was released in 2010. Le Renard is from their second album Kaïseki, released in 2013.